Better Than I Know Myself: A Novel

Virginia DeBerry · Donna Grant

Apr 2010 · Macmillan + ORM

About this ebook

The beloved #1 Essence bestselling authors of Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made now deliver a novel in which you'll meet their most unforgettable characters yet. Carmen, Jewel, and Regina could not be more different. When they meet as freshmen at Columbia University, they're pretty confident that a friendship among them isn't in the cards.

Jewel is Hollywood royalty: as the teenage star of the TV show "Daddy's Girl," her face is instantly recognizable all across America. Now, though, she wants two things-to get a serious education, and to leave her controlling stage mother behind. Regina is the definitive upper-middle-class African-American girl. Her picture-perfect parents are what she calls "black Ward and June Cleavers" and their goals for her are like a stranglehold. No one can see, though, how far Regina's rebellious side will take her (or how treacherous it will become). Carmen is just trying to get by. A child of the projects whose father is dead and whose mother has vanished, Carmen has been raised by her abusive brother. Columbia is the way for her to get a better life-if she can hold down two jobs and keep her GPA up.

When the three of them meet, their lives are at a crossroad. And as the years progress, from the 1980s to the present day, they are challenged by drug addiction, fame, secrets from the past, sickness, betrayal, and the darkest things women can face. One of them won't survive. But what will be the lasting legacy of their friendship? Better Than I Know Myself is a novel of heartache, triumph, tears, and the unshakeable bonds among women.

Ratings and reviews

This book kept me very interested. And though I'm not one that shows my emotion often, this book had me laughing out loud and wiping tears. I definitely recommend this book. Thinking I should read their others.

I enjoyed all of their books, but BTIKM is the best they've written so far. The characters are so layered and similar despite their differences. The twist at the end hurt my heart, but that made the overall plot all the better.

Great book. The story of this true friendship was so lovely. Great details into the friendships and lives of the girls. Ladies next time please supply tissues with books of this caliber.

About the author

Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant are the bestselling authors of Far from the Tree and Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made. Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made won the Merit Award for fiction from the black caucus of the American Library Association, the Book of the Year award from Blackboard, and the New Author of the Year Award from the Go On Girl Book Club. Virginia and Donna first met while working as models, and what should have been a rivalry ended up as a decades-long friendship. Virginia lives in New Jersey, and Donna lives in Brooklyn, New York.